Abstracts with Names Arne Anderdal and Jo Asgeir Lie

Abstracts with Names Arne Anderdal and Jo Asgeir Lie RUNDDANS MUSIC ON HARDANGER FIDDLE The Hardanger fiddle is a string instrument with four top strings and four or five sympathetic strings. The instrument emerged during the 1600s, and was used to play dance music and ceremonial music in duple and triple meter; this music was transferred from other instruments. This music and dance are still very widespread. From the late 1700s to the end of the 1800s, dances and music which were termed runddans came to Norway from Europe and became established as an important part of the popular repertoire in the country. There are many different versions of these dances, but the main types are vals, polka, masurka, and reinlender. Runddans music was played on fiddle and Hardanger fiddle, as well as on instruments such as diatonic and chromatic button accordion. When Norway became an independent state in 1905, the country was to be constructed using “old”, authentic Norwegian culture, and in this context runddans music was regarded as too modern to be used as a building block. The oldest forms of music were given highest status, even though Hardanger fiddlers also played runddans music. In recent times, there has been a conviction that almost no runddans music existed in several of the areas where Hardanger fiddle has been used. But if one investigates historical records and archives, a great deal of runddans music that has a Hardanger fiddle style can be found. This confirms that a great variety of music was played on Hardanger fiddle. What was the effect of the ideological use of folk music on the music world in Norway during the period leading up to 1940? Pat Ballantyne SCOTTISH DANCING MASTERS: PUTTING A KILT ON IT This paper considers the role of Scottish dancing masters in the adoption of new dances in nineteenth- and early twentieth century Scotland. During the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Scottish dancing masters adopted and adapted an ever increasing number of new dances. This phenomenon was fuelled by commercial drivers, the need to establish authority and competition with other dancing masters. Travelling dancing masters had to be resourceful if they were to attract new and returning pupils. As the nineteenth century progressed, the number of these itinerant dancing-masters increased. In Aberdeen, both local and itinerant dancing masters competed for pupils. One popular method used to attract new pupils was for teachers to introduce the latest, most fashionable ballroom dances, often adapting them to suit local tastes. Couple dances, for example, became increasingly popular with the dancing population. My research shows the clear emergence of this phenomenon in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is distinct from earlier days at the beginning of the nineteenth century and commentators such as Francis Peacock, who was more concerned with documenting the dances of the time. Later dancing masters appear to have become intent on maintaining a degree of superiority over their peers and building up their own business practice. I will support this paper with manuscript and archive sources. There are some fascinating examples of dancing masters adopting and adapting dances to suit social mores – literally ‘putting a kilt’ on them. Leah O’Brien Bernini VERSATILITY, PORTABILITY, GRIT, AND GRACE: THE ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL POWER OF THE FIDDLE IN COMMERCIAL INSTRUMENTAL PERFORMANCE Natalie MacMaster. Martin Hayes. Eileen Ivers. Kevin Burke. Liz Carroll. John Carty. Zoe Conway. Fiddle is arguably the only solo instrument to routinely headline on the Celtic commercial touring circuit. What is it about this instrument that captures the attention, imagination, and disposable income of audiences worldwide? Is it its versatility, its capacity for virtuosity, its grit and grace? It is its ability to oscillate easily between melody and harmony, between autonomy, leadership, and cooperation, or across diverse genres? Could it be its global familiarity, popularity, and the availability of instruments and teachers? Or is it its inherent beauty, the captivating aesthetic of the human-instrument synergic dance? Does its physical portability play a role, or is more credit due to the personality and characteristics of those with discipline to master this instrument and pursue a career in performance? This paper explores fiddle as indisputably the most popular – and arguably the most economically viable – solo instrument in commercialised North Atlantic traditions. These findings derive from a five-year study investigating the entangled and mutually constitutive relationship between western commercial music and neoliberal capitalism. This study engages over eighty prominent professionals in commercialised Celtic music production and analyses participants’ strategies, experiences and actions as they navigate the delicate ‘art-commerce-social triad’ (Banks 2007). Examining how artists and industry personnel experience and interact with the neoliberal capitalist cultural formation, through their involvement in entertainment industry, helps reveal how professional artists experience the intersection of commerce and art, that is, the commodification of their musical experience. Christen J. Blanton PATHWAYS TO LEARNING: THE MUSICAL JOURNEYS OF FIVE ADULT FIDDLE PLAYERS The learning of musical styles and techniques can occur in many different contexts. From the school music program to the weekly pub jam, whether learning from a recording or reading from printed notation, fiddle players have myriad options for engaging in learning opportunities. Learning music is a journey, a path that can twist and turn in many different directions (Lamont, 2011). In a contemporary world, it can be expected that the journey of learning to play the fiddle, regardless of style, be informed by a wealth of diverse musical experiences. What musical experiences contribute to the decision to learn to play fiddle? What do fiddlers value in varied music learning contexts? The purpose of this study is to examine the musical journeys of five fiddle players. Although these fiddlers have different backgrounds and experiences with music making, they all chose to attend Fiddle Week at The Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina to enhance their skills. Fiddle Week offers a range of classes in many different styles, and as such, participants were enrolled in classes related to old-time, bluegrass, Métis, swing, and Celtic fiddle traditions. `It is my hope that by examining the diverse musical journeys of these five fiddlers, the motivations for, and rewards of learning fiddling traditions may be better understood. In addition, teachers of fiddle traditions may benefit from understanding how their students’ musical learning experiences in different contexts contribute to the enjoyment of various fiddle styles. Hallie Blejewski WHAT INSTRUMENTS WANT: FIDDLING IN THE BLACK ATLANTIC West African one-stringed bowed instruments like the gondze may not conform to commonly held notions of "the fiddle" (i.e. the violin as used in particular folk contexts). Yet the musical activities in which these instruments are key actors are unmistakably fiddling, and in this paper, I explore why. Eliot Bates advocates for serious study of "the social life of musical instruments." Attributing agency to inanimate objects such as musical instruments creates a space in which the negotiations between the desires of instruments and those of their performers can be foregrounded. How do instruments forge their own identities, asserting themselves as fiddles, and how do the intentions of musicians act upon, against, or in concert with the nonhuman (un)intentionality of sound production? Ethnomusicological studies of African musical traditions disproportionately focus on instruments such as the mbira, xylophone, and many types of drum, which skews the perception of African musical diversity. As scholars like Kofi Agawu are increasingly pushing to reshape the ways in which African musics are represented in academic discourse, African fiddling traditions have entered a space once (and, to an extent, still) dominated Western ideas of "African rhythm.” Jacqueline DjeDje argues that the concept of "virtuosity" and the relationship between the fiddler and dancers are crucial characteristics of West African fiddling. By situating fiddling inside the framework of Paul Gilroy's Black Atlantic, I use examples of African and European fiddle music to investigate the deceptively simple question, "What are fiddles, and what do they want?" Jorn Borggreen BACK TO THE KITCHEN RACKET AND THE DANCE HALL Cape Breton island, Nova Scotia is fortunate to have a form of genuine folk dance which is still alive to the present day. It is a form of square dance, performed by four couples, which can be experienced around the island, especially during the summer. This form of quadrille dance is not very old – it was introduced in the beginning of the last century – but it carries the characters of folk dance, i.e. dances performed at social functions by the local population with little or no professional training, to traditionally based music. In 1998 when I first visited Cape Breton this dance form was mostly – but not only – kept alive at a few busy dance halls and the crowd was often dominated by tourists. Moreover, descriptions of the dances were not available in any form, except in the heads of the former -- now old -- prompters. During several visits to CB I collected material by interviewing the

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